


Your Highness

by zhennan



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: M/M, Runaway Prince, medieval times, prince x knight, they go on a journey together, what if we overthrew the kingdom together uwu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:55:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26808496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zhennan/pseuds/zhennan
Summary: The Kang kingdom is left in flames after their young prince Yeosang escapes the castle. The king's most trusted knight, Sir Mingi, is given the task to find him. Technically, the king never said to bring him back.
Relationships: Kang Yeosang/Song Mingi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43
Collections: RARETEEZ





	Your Highness

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [AteezRarePairFest2020](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/AteezRarePairFest2020) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Any ship
> 
> A is a prince and decides to run away from his castle/kingdom entirely. B, one of the knights, catches him but decides to join A in his escape.
> 
> (max rating T)  
>    
> the setting for this fic is medieval times but let's pretend they had the internet, phones, tablets, tracking devices, and scanners back then

The kingdom ruled by the Kangs have been ridiculed with war, scandals, and criticism for years, yet today was the most chaotic Mingi had seen the castle. Guards and royal advisors scurried through hallways, official paperwork flew messily in the air, and the prince’s bedroom door was holding up on only one hinge. Sir Song Mingi stood outside the wide open door as the queen herself rummaged through the prince’s belongings, hoping to find any hint of him.

The king steps out of the bedroom, and the knight faces him and bows. The king gestures for him to relax before saying, “Sir Mingi, you were one of Yeosang’s dearest knights. You must have some idea as to where he’s gone.”

Mingi lowers his head and fixes his gaze onto the floor. “I’m sorry, I do not, your majesty.”

A sigh erupts from the older man and he opens his mouth to speak. A younger man Mingi recognizes as Jongho quickly jogs over to the pair, clutching a tablet in his hands. He bows to the king, who turns his attention to the boy instead of saying what he was going to say.

“Your majesty, we have tracked Prince Yeosang’s cell phone. The location appears to be in the middle of the Forgotten Forest, though the signal isn’t moving anymore, so we believe he’s either paused his travels or he discarded his phone there,” Jongho explains, his head bowed and hands holding out the tablet with the Prince’s coordinates for the king to observe.

“You have done well, Jongho, thank you,” the king takes the tablet and dismisses him. He looks at it momentarily before shoving it in Mingi’s direction and bowing at the knight. Mingi widens his eyes, bowing further out of respect, but stops when he hears the king’s faint whisper.

“Please find my son. You’re the one I trust most, his life is in your hands.”

Sir Mingi’s heart is heavy, and though he knew Prince Yeosang probably didn’t want to be found, he accepts the tablet and responds passionately, “I will find him.”

Mingi’s horse slows to a stop outside of the Forgotten Forest and he grips tightly on the reins, staring at the entrance. As the name suggests, the Forgotten Forest was the only patch of land in the Kingdom of the Kangs that had never been touched by humans. Vegetation was free to grow as much as possible, no roads were paved for travel, and there is no accurate estimate as to how many different types of animals claimed the habitat as their home. Mingi already assumed that Yeosang only ventured into the forest solely to trash his phone and go where he really wanted to go without being tracked, yet his brain could not conjure any possible locations he could have gone after without being spotted. This was his only lead.

The knight zooms into the digital map displayed on Jongho’s tablet, sighing at the fact Yeosang really dumped his phone precisely in the middle of the Forgotten Forest. He was confused how he had gotten the exact coordinates right, and as he began to enter, how he was able to maneuver through the overgrown plants and trees.

He quickly decides that he should make his way through the forest fast while the sun is still out, so he directs his horse to gallop through an opening. The horse halts, however, when the gaps between flora appear too small for it to fit through. Mingi sighs, hastily jumping off and making a temporary hitching post to tie the horse to.

Mingi unleashes his sword and sprints through the forest, cutting through any foliage in his way. Thanks to his training, he progresses a lot before he gets tired. When he runs out of breath, he slows to a walk and checks the tablet, only to see he had moved just a few pixels. “How did Prince Yeosang do it?” he mutters to himself.

The knight powers through though, and doesn’t even notice the sun setting when he finally reaches an open field within the forest, with a cell phone in the center of the field. His knees buckle as soon as he sees it, and he collapses onto the grass. He feels his eyes roll into the back of his head in exhaustion, but still manages to crawl towards the phone. He picks it up and attempts to turn it on, only to find it out of battery. He loses all of his strength at that moment, and everything goes black.

“Oh, Sir Mingi?” a voice wakes him up, and when he opens his eyes, he’s immediately met with Prince Yeosang. “You can’t sleep here.”

Mingi jumps up, impulsively tackling the prince and pushing him to the ground. He straddles him and holds his wrists above his head, trapping him. When the knight meets the prince’s eyes, he realizes their position and his face turns red. “I’m sorry, your highness, but if I get off of you, will you try to escape?”

Yeosang tilts his head in contemplation. “I guess not.”

He lets out a breath of relief, letting go of the prince’s hands and moving back to allow him to sit up. At that moment, Mingi notices the bright, clear sky and a bag of Yeosang’s belongings off to the side. He must have slept for the entire night.

“Why are you back here, your highness?” Mingi wonders out loud. “You left your phone here because you knew the kingdom was tracking it.”

Yeosang grins, holding up a pouch. “I came back for this. It holds all the money I stole from my parents. My dumbass left it here, but I assumed they’d send you here, so I knew I’d be safe.”

“I serve the king,” he tells him, “And I received direct orders from the king to find you.”

“You found me!” the prince cheers, “Mission success, you can go back to the kingdom with news that I’m safe. Better yet, tell everyone I’m dead so they won’t look for me.”

“I’m not gonna leave you here, your highness.” Mingi clenches his jaw.

“Stop calling me highness,” Yeosang’s tone changes, “I never wanted to be prince. Mingi, you know me, you know how much I’ve wanted to escape.”

The knight shakes his head. “You shouldn’t have let me find you then.”

“Come with me,” he offers, “Please. I want you with me.”

Mingi falters at the desperation laced in Yeosang’s voice. “Where do you plan on going?”

Yeosang’s eyes light up. “Downtown, one of my online friends lives there and said I can crash at his place until I figure out everything.”

“Online?” he repeats. “Are you sure it’s safe?”

He rolls his eyes. “I’ve video chatted him multiple times, so no, he’s not a fifty year old man who wants to wear my skin.”

“That’s not what I meant. How do you know he really has a place you can stay at? How do you trust him not to hurt you when you’re vulnerable? Does he know you’re the prince? How are you sure he’s not using you for the reward money?”

“I just know, okay?” Yeosang says truthfully, looking Mingi straight in the eye. “I can read people well, that’s why I haven’t run away from you just yet.”

Mingi doesn’t dare to speak up after that. Instead, he has countless thoughts running through his mind, most of them about the dangers of allowing the prince to escape. Despite the voices in his head urging him to take Yeosang back to the castle, Mingi finds himself kneeling at the boy. “I will follow your judgement, my prince.”

Yeosang scoffs. “Get up, Mingi. From now on, you do not serve me nor the king. You may not address me as prince or highness, and I will not address you as Sir or my knight. No kneeling either.”

The former knight gets up with a grin. “You’re contradicting yourself by making me follow those orders.”

“Shut up.” He hits his arm playfully. “Where’s your horse?”

“I left it way back there,” he responds, pointing to the general direction behind him.

Yeosang nods. “Come on, I’ve got a bike. You can ride on the back.”

“I’m not sure I’ll fit,” Mingi answers.

“You will.” He smiles warmly. “Just make sure to hold onto me.”

And so Mingi does, very tightly. Even though he’s a knight, trained to face any kind of danger head-on, he has little experience riding any vehicle that wasn’t a horse. Not only was he worried about falling off and losing the prince, but he feared the consequences of escaping the kingdom. He served the king, and neglecting the king’s orders was an act of treason. Once they reach the outskirts of the forest, Yeosang stops to let pedestrians walk in front of the bike. He turns around, sensing Mingi’s feelings.

“I can hear you mentally freaking out,” he comments. “All you have to do is follow my lead. We won’t get caught. Even if we did, I’ll take full responsibility.”

“You know that’s not how it works,” he argues, resting his head on Yeosang’s shoulder after he turns back to continue biking. “I’m a knight, you’re a prince. Anything you do is projected onto me. Any danger you put yourself in, especially running away from the castle, is because I didn’t guard you as well as I was supposed to.”

Yeosang hums. “So you hate it too?”

“Hate what?”

“This whole hierarchy,” he explains. “Why must I be the prince? Why must I be the heir to the throne? Why must a man reign over an entire country? Why must we employ knights and guards and advisors, who only become their roles due to family pressures? The king and queen don’t even treat their servants as humans. What makes me or my entire family so special?”

Mingi opens his mouth only to close it again. “You’re right. Why is that?”

“I hear things, Mingi,” Yeosang tells him. “I hear about how it’s like in the slums. People don’t even have proper access to water, while my family’s hoarding all kinds of riches. I just can’t live that life anymore.”

“Couldn’t you have worked from within?” he questions. “What’s the point of leaving all of those riches behind to become a part of the slums? You could have distributed the wealth after being crowned.”

“You think my father makes his own decisions?” Yeosang removes one hand off of the handlebars and Mingi’s grip on his waist tightens in panic. He uses his free hand to pull a paper out of his back pocket and he holds it out for Mingi to take. “Open it, it’s the list of all of the top one percent families and corporations my dad is giving illegal benefits and tax exclusions to. I tried to talk him out of it, but apparently his dad did it that way, and so did his dad, and he’s only following what the royal advisors tell him. The cycle has to be stopped. I’m going to be leaking it to news outlets in the city. I decided it’s the only way.”

Mingi unfolds the piece of paper and reads each name, recognizing a few from having to stand in certain meetings. “And where’s the evidence?”

“Well, it’s too obvious if I take all of the important documents. I scanned them and sent them over to Joong hyung. They’re all tax documents, so he’s getting his accountant husband to look into them more in depth.”

Mingi recognizes the name Joong from his late night talks with Yeosang. It’s a nickname for a man named Kim Hongjoong. He was one of the internet friends that he assumed Yeosang was going to stay with. Mingi always wanted to do a background check on him and the rest of his friends, but always stopped due to Yeosang’s protests. He regretted it now.

“Are you sure you can trust Hongjoong and his husband? You’ve never met him in real life until now,” he worries. Yeosang rolls his eyes.

“You’ve always been against my internet friends,” he tells him. “I never understood why.”

“It’s literally my job,” he reminds him.

“Was,” Yeosang corrects. “So why are you worried now? You’re not in charge of my safety anymore.”

Mingi’s mouth feels dry. He takes a moment to consider why he still feels the need to protect Yeosang despite him ultimately firing him. A part of himself assumes it’s because he’s still legally a knight, working under the king’s rule, while he knows deep down why he still cares. He almost tells Yeosang the truth, but decides to stay silent.

The former knight takes this time to observe the outskirts of the kingdom. Mingi’s father was one of the head knights in charge of guarding the king, so he grew up in the castle. He would commute to the city for school and often visited his civilian friends’ houses, but it stopped once he became a squire. Shortly after training, Mingi took on the task of protecting the prince, who had been homeschooled his entire life and was never revealed to the public, so he never got to go outside much. It had been seven years since he really got to leave the castle.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Yeosang breaks the silence, looking at the garden they were passing. Rather than looking at it, Mingi stares at Yeosang’s side profile.

“Yeah, it is,” he confirms.

When Yeosang turns to face the front again, Mingi pulls himself closer to him and rests his head on his shoulder. Yeosang seems to falter a bit in surprise and Mingi giggles to himself. After some riding, the sun sets quicker than they expected, and Yeosang pulls over before Mingi’s eyelids droop to a close.

“We should get some sleep and continue in the morning,” he tells him. Mingi sleepily nods, getting off the bike and following Yeosang to an empty field off the side of the road. They walk towards the center of the field together.

Yeosang sets the bike aside and quickly lies down, sprawled across the grass, gripping onto his belongings tightly. Mingi sighs, lying down next to him.

“Before you say it,” Yeosang says hastily, “Yes, we’ll be safe.”

“I trust you,” Mingi tells him. 

Yeosang turns onto his side to look at him. “You really do?”

“Yeah.” Mingi also turns to meet his eyes. “I do.”

When the two wake up from the sunlight, they find their legs tangled and Mingi’s arms wrapped around the former prince. Yeosang wakes up first, laughing loudly at the position they’re in, which wakes up Mingi. The ex knight sheepishly detaches from him, rolling his body away.

“You all rested up?” Yeosang asks. Once he gets a groggy nod, he smiles. “Good, because you’re riding the bike today.”

“What?!” Mingi gets up quickly, the statement snapping him out of his sleepy state. “I don’t know how to ride a bike!”

“C’mon, it shouldn’t be much harder than riding a horse,” he scoffs. “I’ve got you anyways.”

Mingi’s already trusted the boy enough to escape from the kingdom with him and sleep completely unprotected in the middle of an empty field, so he decides that he can continue trusting him. He hesitantly approaches the bike and sits on it the same way he watched Yeosang. Almost immediately, he falls off, but Yeosang quickly holds him in place.

“I’m holding you,” he assures him, his hands around his waist. “Put your foot on the pedal and push forward. Use your other foot to keep going.”

He does as he’s told and appears to be moving forward. He turns to look at Yeosang in shock that he’s doing it, until he realizes that he was still holding him to help him balance. “Let go, I think I got it.”

“You sure? You barely started,” he questions.

He nods and Yeosang slowly lets go only to catch him before he falls again. “Okay, I guess I don’t got it. Are you sure you can’t take us there?”

“Mingi, you’re gonna need to know how to ride a bike to get around the city,” he informs him. “When’s a better time to teach you than now?”

“Um, maybe when we’re at the city and you’re done with all of the whistleblowing you were planning to do.”

Yeosang ignores his suggestion and pushes the bike forward. Mingi begins pedalling again and Yeosang lets go quickly without him noticing. He keeps biking, though swaying side by side struggling to keep moving straight. Yeosang cheers, “Look, you’ve got it!”

“I’ve got it!” Mingi yells. “How do I stop?!”

Yeosang runs to help him stop biking, but he takes a sharp turn and crashes into a couple of trash cans. He winces, pulling him up. “Are you okay? That was a bad fall.”

“You said you got me!” he complains. Mingi looks at him with pitiful eyes and pouts his lips. He has to stop himself from kissing him right there.

“I’m sorry,” he apologizes, “But hey, you know how to ride a bike now! To brake, just slow down your pedalling and drag your heel against the ground.”

Mingi flashes a smile. “In that case, get on.”

This time, Yeosang wraps his arms around Mingi’s torso and presses his cheek against his back. Mingi successfully starts pedalling and Yeosang directs him on which way to go and when he should stop. After an hour or two, they finally see an urban area, full of stores and apartment buildings and people going from place to place. Yeosang tells him to take a left into a residential neighborhood and ride all the way down. He stops in front of the house at the very end of the street.

“This is Hongjoong’s,” Yeosang tells him, jumping off the bike. Mingi feels a bit empty without his arms wrapped around him.

He timidly follows Yeosang as he walks up to the front door and knocks aggressively. He points to a doorbell button and Yeosang facepalms at how he missed it before pushing it as well. Someone yells, “Coming!” through the door and the two of them stand patiently. The door opens after a few minutes, and a man with bright blue hair appears in front of them.

“Yeosang!” he cheers.

“Hongjoong hyung!” Yeosang cheers back, jumping to hug him. Mingi sucks in a breath.

After they pull apart, Hongjoong looks towards Mingi, raising his eyebrows to suggest an introduction. “Hi,” he says. “I’m Song Mingi, I was Yeosang’s kn—”

“—knitting friend! We used to knit together,” Yeosang interrupts. Mingi narrows his eyes at him, and he already knows what it means. 

“Come on in!” Hongjoong beckons, opening the door wider for the both of them to walk in. “Honey, Yeosang is here, he’s brought his friend Mingi!”

The honey in question is a black-haired man sprawled across the couch in the living room who hurriedly gets up to greet the guests. “Nice to meet you both, I’m Seonghwa.” He shakes both of their hands, which Mingi finds strange in comparison to Hongjoong’s casual greeting.

“That’s a shame, we only thought Yeosang was staying here,” he tells them. “We’ve got only one bed in the guest room. It’s fine that Mingi’s here too, we’ll get another pillow and blanket for you, but I hope it isn’t too uncomfortable.”

“No, it’s fine, thank you,” Mingi smiles at him.

Hongjoong and Seonghwa show them the guest room, where Yeosang immediately jumps onto the bed. “We’ve been traveling for two days, I’m exhausted.”

“Are you guys hungry? Seonghwa made chicken just for you,” Hongjoong tells them. Yeosang gets off the bed as fast as he got on at the mention of chicken.

Yeosang scarves down the meal quickly while Mingi takes his time and compliments Seonghwa’s cooking abilities. He thanks Seonghwa endlessly, and Yeosang only looks at him with an unrecognizable glint in his eye. They talk about the journey over the dinner table, laughing at how Yeosang forgot his pouch in the field and when he taught Mingi how to ride a bike. Yeosang finishes his portion faster than the rest of them, thanking Seonghwa for the meal and excusing himself to his guest room. Mingi takes another moment to complete his before following.

He expects to find him lying down in bed, trying to rest up from their long day. Instead, Yeosang is sitting up, papers scattered all over the covers, and he holds his face in his hands.

“Everything okay?” he asks.

“I didn’t think this through.” Yeosang pulls at his hair. “I don’t know where to go from here.”

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay.” Mingi edges closer to him and rests his hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go through it together. Figure out which documents we want to forward to the news stations.”

Yeosang moves a little to make space for Mingi on the bed. He sits down, wrapping his arm around Yeosang completely, his thumb rubbing circles into his shoulder. With his free hand, he sifts through the papers, bringing them up to his face to read.

When Seonghwa knocks on their door later to give Mingi his extra covers, he doesn’t get a response at first. He cracks the door open to see inside the room, worried that something might have happened to them. What he finds instead is the two under a blanket, files thrown all over the room, and Mingi holding Yeosang tightly in his arms. He smiles softly at the couple and backs out of the room, understanding that they won’t need another blanket.

The next morning, when Mingi wakes up, instead of feeling embarrassed, he pulls Yeosang closer. They only get up out of bed when Yeosang wakes up and slowly looks around the room. Seeing all of his copied documents on the floor makes him sit up straight and out of Mingi’s arms, scurrying to collect them all and make sure nothing happened to them. Mingi turns, grumbling about wanting to sleep for longer.

“Wake up, we have to drop these off before the publication companies open,” he tells him, attempting to pull him out of bed. Instead, Mingi drags him back down, sending him into giggles but still resisting. “Come on!”

He finally listens and gets up, and the duo get ready to go outside and face the city for the first time. Though they expected the city life to be more hectic and chaotic than life at the castle, it is way more crowded than they were prepared for. They move a little too slowly for the people living there and Yeosang gets pushed away, almost separating from Mingi. Mingi quickly grabs onto his hand, though, and pulls him back to him. Yeosang grins at him.

“Knight reflexes,” Mingi states. He chuckles.

Yeosang uses the map Hongjoong gave him to locate where the newspaper publications were. Holding onto Mingi’s hand tightly, he leads him to the first one, before faltering at a sign on the window.

Plastered all over the windows of every shop in the city is a picture of Prince Yeosang. The flyer reads “Wanted! Missing Prince Yeosang, Generous Reward” in big letters and everyone passing by stops to look at it, some even noticing the resemblance and staring at Yeosang.

“Oh my God.” Yeosang moves closer to Mingi in an attempt to conceal himself from people walking by. He ends up hiding his face in Mingi’s chest. “How am I supposed to get this news released now, when the fact I’ve gone missing is blocking all other news?” he mumbles into his shirt, and it takes Mingi a moment to process his muffled words.

“It’s fine, Yeosang,” he tells him. Yeosang looks up at him, shocked that he finally called him by his name rather than “prince” or “your highness”.

Mingi smiles at him warmly. “We’re gonna keep dropping off these documents. This news is big, I don’t think they’re going to block it. These are real citizens behind the newspapers, not kingdoms. No matter how much they try to bribe them, the people are the most passionate when it comes to their own unfair treatment.”

Yeosang stares into his eyes, and Mingi finds himself cupping his face. He finally does what he’s been wanting to for years. He kisses Yeosang softly, who immediately wraps his arms around his neck and melts into the kiss.

“You’re right,” he says after they pull apart. “Let’s go change the world.”

When they get back to Hongjoong and Seonghwa’s house after dropping off their copies, they enter hand-in-hand and Seonghwa smiles at their skinship. He offers them breakfast without talking about their relationship development and they graciously dig in. After finishing their meals and going back to the guest room to make out some more, Hongjoong stumbles into their room frantically.

“Holy shit!” he exclaims, walking into the room as they were kissing. “Sorry for interrupting. There’s a lot of commotion outside and I think you really want to check it out.”

Seonghwa is already out on the lawn when they exit the front door. People march past their house in large groups, holding up signs and chanting a slogan demanding the truth. He gives Yeosang the newspaper he was grasping in his hands.

“Missing Prince Found Leaking Illegal Documents Forged By The Kingdom,” the headline read. Attached was a copy of the document he had distributed and a photo of him outside one of the newspaper distributors. Yeosang chuckles, showing the front page to Mingi, who smiles as well.

“We did it,” Mingi tells him.

“Thank you,” Yeosang says, “So much. I’m not sure what’ll happen next with the world or with the kingdom, but I know for sure whatever it is, we’ll get through it together.”

Mingi squeezes Yeosang’s hand. “Together,” he repeats, placing another kiss on his lips.


End file.
